Trial begins for Miss. mayor

JACKSON, Miss. - The mayor of Mississippi’s largest city led a “rampage of destruction” when he directed a group of young men to use sticks and sledgehammers to destroy a duplex he considered a crack house, a prosecutor said Monday.

Jackson Mayor Frank Melton, 59, is on trial in federal court for violating the civil rights of the duplex’s owner and her tenant.

“This case is about government officials who took a sledgehammer to the Constitution just as surely as they took it to Bubba’s house,” federal prosecutor Patricia Sumner said during opening arguments, referring to tenant Evans Welch.

Melton, who has already been acquitted on state charges in the same incident, has claimed he was just keeping a campaign promise to root out crime in Mississippi’s capital city.

He has not denied damaging the home in August 2006.

He and former bodyguard Michael Recio face three felony charges and a maximum 25-year sentence. They have pleaded not guilty.

Melton’s attorney, John Reeves, is withholding his opening arguments until after the government rests its case.

Recio’s attorney, Cynthia Stewart, told jurors the government’s case is built on the lies of Marcus Wright, another former bodyguard who took a plea deal and turned on the others.

“He’s lied and he’s lied and he’s lied,” Stewart said.